Drought relief: Rajasthan alleges raw dealHisar, February 7Mr Ram Singh Bishnoi, Rajasthan Agriculture Minister, today alleged that the National Democratic Alliance government at the centre was discriminating against Rajasthan over the distribution of drought relief.

Chautala
assures hike in wheat MSPKaithal, February 7The Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash
Chautala, announced today that the government would ensure an increase
in the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat and remunerative costs of
their produce to farmers in the coming wheat season.

New technique to grow button mushroomsHisar, February 7A scientist of Haryana Agriculture University here has developed a technique for
growing button mushrooms. Dr R.S. Rana, mushroom scientist, said today that the technique had been tested for button mushrooms and production technique for other varieties was being evolved.

Haryana to have another varsityChandigarh, February 7Haryana will soon have another university. It will be named, of course, after none other than the late Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Devi
Lal. To be set up at Sirsa, the home district of Mr Devi Lal, the university is likely to get a legal sanctity in the forthcoming Budget session of the State Assembly when the government is likely to move a Bill in the House in this regard.

Couple, son sentenced to lifeFatehabad, February 7Additional District and Sessions Judge Darshan Singh here today sentenced a
couple and their son to life for the murder of a villager. Those convicted are Mitho Singh, his wife Guddi and son Dholu, residents of Hinjrawan Kalan village.

Stories from Haryana towns falling in the
National Capital Region are put in NCR Tribune.

Winners of science quiz given prizesKurukshetra, February 7Amandeep and Neeraj from Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kurukshetra, were declared winners while Poorva and Guneet Kaur from Maharana Pratap Public School, Kurukshetra, were declared runners-up in the Annual Science Quiz Contest organised by the Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre on its premises here yesterday evening.

Hall to be named after Kalpana ChawlaKurukshetra, February 7The Madan Lal Dhingra Memorial Committee has decided to name the hall being constructed at a cost of Rs 60 lakh in Punjabi Dharamshala here after ‘Kalpana Chawla’.

HVP
denies reportChandigarh, February 7The Haryana Vikas Party of the former Chief Minister, Mr Bansi
Lal, has strongly reacted to news reports that the Congress had turned down a proposal for the merger of the two parties.

DC orders probe into bribe caseFatehabad, February 7Following allegations of corruption in respect of release of water from the Fatehabad Distributary by officials of the Canal Department, Deputy Commissioner, Dr R.B. Langyaan today asked Subdivisional Magistrate Yogesh Bhardwaj to probe the matter.

IGPs’ meeting at
MadhubanChandigarh, February 7The Haryana DGP, Mr M. S. Malik, today said that a meeting of all range IGPs and District SPs would be held under his chairmanship at Madhuban on February 15 to review the law and order situation in the state.

Hisar, February 7
Mr Ram Singh Bishnoi, Rajasthan Agriculture Minister, today alleged that the National Democratic Alliance government at the centre was discriminating against Rajasthan over the distribution of drought relief.

He was addressing mediapersons here after attending a marriage at Tokas Patan village near here. He said though the state had been facing drought-like situation for the past five years, Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, had adopted a discriminatory attitude towards Rajasthan as Congress government ruled there.

The state government had sent many detailed reports on drought to the Centre but it did not take any steps in this regard.

He claimed that though the state government had given temporary jobs to 20-lakh drought-affected people on its own but it was not sufficient. The state government was not in a position to face the situation on its own.

Farmers of the state along with their animals were forced to go to neighboring states like Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh for livelihood.

There was resentment among the farmers of Rajasthan against the NDA government over this issue.

Commenting on the recent defeat of the Congress in by-elections in Rajasthan, he said the impact of Godhra and Akshardham incidents was fresh on the minds of the people of Rajasthan.

Another reason for the defeat, he said that Congress workers could not make people aware on the properly welfare policies and development works launched by the state government.

Mr Bishnoi, who is also the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Bishnoi Mahasabha, said that the construction work on the Bishnoi Hostel and Dharmshala would be completed soon. The Sabha would spend Rs 10 crore on this project.

Kaithal,
February 7
The Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, announced today that the
government would ensure an increase in the minimum support price (MSP)
of wheat and remunerative costs of their produce to farmers in the
coming wheat season. This was stated by him while addressing people at
the Sarkar Aapke Dwar programme at Karora village of the Pai Assembly
constituency in the district.

He said the government had sanctioned Rs 240 crore to provide relief to the drought-hit farmers in the state.

The
Chief Minster said the present government believed that the people
living in rural areas should be provided basic amenities on a par with
their urban counterparts and so the government had taken a number of
steps in this direction. He said in a democracy the government should
work according to the will of the people and he was following the
footsteps of his father Jan Nayak Choudhary Devi Lal who used to say
“Lok Raj , Lok Laaj Se Chalta Hai”.

He said the government had taken a decision to install transformers in villages where there were no transformers and to augment the capacity of the existing transformers. He announced that all chaupals would be repaired and schools fulfilling the necessary conditions will be upgraded.

The
Chief Minister also announced the decision to set-up a rice mill at
Pai village by Hafed and brick paving of circular roads, upgradation
of the Girls High School, construction of a nullah there. He also
announced a number of development works for Karora village.

Hisar, February 7
A scientist of Haryana Agriculture University here has developed a technique for growing button mushrooms.

Dr R.S. Rana, mushroom scientist, said today that the technique had been tested for button mushrooms and production technique for other varieties was being evolved.

He said kitchen gardening enthusiasts could dig a six to eight inches deep trench in a shady area of the garden. Trench size for good yield for an average family could be one to 12 inches to 18 inches in width and six feet to eight feet in length.

The trench should be filled with spawned compost and covered by old newspapers. Humidity could be maintained by spraying water twice a day. After spawn run, a five cm casing of coir pith, field soil and burnt rice husk should be applied to maintain humidity.

Dr Rana said his experiments had yielded good results and the output depended on the material used and humidity levels. He said this simple technique could be useful for small and marginal farmers as it did not require any special equipment, covered area or formal training.

Chandigarh, February 7
Haryana will soon have another university. It will be named, of course, after none other than the late Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Devi
Lal.

To be set up at Sirsa, the home district of Mr Devi Lal, the university is likely to get a legal sanctity in the forthcoming Budget session of the State Assembly when the government is likely to move a Bill in the House in this regard.

According to informed sources, the government had initially toyed with the idea of issuing an ordinance to set up the university. However, the idea was dropped after a rebuff from the Governor, Babu
Parmanand, who refused to sign two ordinances which the government wanted to issue to curtail the powers and autonomy of the State Election Commission responsible for conducting the elections to the local bodies and the panchayati raj institutions.

The government wanted that it should be made mandatory for the State Election Commission to fix the dates for holding the elections in consultation with the State Government. The Governor who rightly turned down the proposals which violated the spirit behind the grant of autonomy to the Election Commission, reportedly advised the government that since the Budget session was approaching it should not resort to the ordinances.

The State Election Commissioner, Mr
T.D. Jogpal, had reportedly incurred the wrath of the State Government when he announced the election date for the Panchkula Municipal Council on his own. His son, Mr Rajesh
Jogpal, was transferred from Panchkula.

The sources say the proposed Devi Lal University will be an affiliating university. To start with, educational institutions in three or four districts affiliated with Kurukshetra University are likely to be affiliated with the new university.

It may be recalled that the Devi Lal Memorial Committee had recommended that an open university should be set up in memory of the late Deputy Prime Minister in Gurgaon. It is not known if any progress has been made on the
proposal.

Fatehabad, February 7
Additional District and Sessions Judge Darshan Singh here today sentenced a couple and their son to life for the murder of a villager.

Those convicted are Mitho Singh, his wife Guddi and son Dholu, residents of Hinjrawan Kalan village. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on the husband and the wife and Rs 4000 on their son.

According to reports, Dholu had an altercation with Mani Ram of the same village after he allegedly said something unsavoury comments about a girl of latter’s household. A clash followed and a case was registered against Mani Ram, Saman Ram and Mohinder of the same village on the complaint of Guddi. The police had filed challans against both parties and the hearing of the case was on February 22, 1999. But Mitho, Guddi and Dholu went to the house of Mohinder on February 20, 1999 where Saman Ram and Mani Ram were also sitting. Mitho Singh fired from his licensed gun killing Saman Ram on the spot.

Kurukshetra, February 7
Amandeep and Neeraj from Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kurukshetra, were declared winners while Poorva and Guneet Kaur from Maharana Pratap Public School, Kurukshetra, were declared runners-up in the Annual Science Quiz Contest organised by the Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre on its premises here yesterday evening. The contest was organised in collaboration with the State Bank of Patiala, Kurukshetra, and supported by the Rotary Club, Kurukshetra.

According to the Centre’s Project Coordinator, Mr S. Kumar, Pankaj and Raghav of Aggarsain Public School, Kurukshetra, and Mayank and Nitin of Gita Niketan Awasiya Vidyalaya, Kurukshetra, won the third prize.

The Chemistry Department, Chairman from Kurukshetra University, Prof L.R. Kakkar, gave away the prizes and certificates to all the eight selected teams.

Students of classes VIII and X, comprising 24 teams, drawn from 12 schools from Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Karnal districts participated in the contest.

Chandigarh, February 7
The Haryana Vikas Party of the former Chief Minister, Mr Bansi
Lal, has strongly reacted to news reports that the Congress had turned down a proposal for the merger of the two parties.

In a statement issued here today the Secretary-General of the party, Mr Surender Singh, described the report “highly motivated and baseless”. He said the news report had been planted by those elements who were disturbed at the rising popularity of the HVP in the state.

Mr Surender Singh said there was no question of HVP merging with the Congress, the graph of which was on a constant decline for various reasons.

Under these circumstances, the HVP and its members would not think of having truck with the Congress, what to talk of a merger.

Fatehabad, February 7
Following allegations of corruption in respect of release of water from the Fatehabad Distributary by officials of the Canal Department, Deputy Commissioner, Dr R.B. Langyaan today asked Subdivisional Magistrate Yogesh Bhardwaj to probe the matter.

The farmers alleged that officials of the Canal Department including a junior engineer and an SDO demanded bribe of Rs 14,000 for the release of waters.

Chandigarh, February 7
The Haryana DGP, Mr M. S. Malik, today said that a meeting of all range IGPs and District SPs would be held under his chairmanship at Madhuban on February 15 to review the law and order situation in the state.

The
DGP, who was presiding over a meeting of the Coordination Committee of the state police at Panchkula today, directed police officers to deal with court cases on priority basis and file replies on time.

Chandigarh, February 7
The Haryana Health Department has made arrangements for conducting the second round of pulse polio immunisation campaign on February 9. While stating this, Mr M. L.
Ranga, Minister of State for Health, said 15,000 immunisation centres had been set up.
TNS